"Awkward," "lurid" and "surreal" are adjectives one is more likely to ascribe to a vintage douche spot than a candy commercial. Enter MJZ's Tom Kuntz. Much of the 34-year-old director's work hinges on awkwardly compelling character dynamics and downright Dadaist situations. As one half of the directing duo Kuntz & Maguire, he gave us the term 'Christmahanakwanzaka' and memorable videos for The Avalanches and Electric Six. Since going solo in 2005, he's remained a consistent force on the comedy scene with his instantly recognizable deadpan style.

In December, he scored his first DGA nomination for a series of Saturday morning-friendly Skittles spots, which featured amorous facial hair ("Beard"), a dangling munchkin ("Leak") and an operatic rabbit ("Trade"). But despite the ad industry's unrelenting passion for statuettes, he's instinctively wary of award shows. "It's one of those things I've never coveted or really cared about when other people are nominated," he says over the phone from LA. "But when you get it, you're like, 'Oh, cool'."

The nomination capped a prolific year for Kuntz. He shot more than 20 jobs, including campaigns for NetFlix, Sprint, Xbox, Amp'd Mobile and Washington Lottery, plus a web film for Tanqueray on location in India and a MasterCard commercial in which Richard Dean Anderson reprised MacGyver.

This year, he's hoping to contribute to the American pop culture zeitgeist through other channels. He's directed his first music video in two years for Australian band Bumblebeez. He also finished a Snickers spot for the UK starring Mr. T and he's doing rewrites on a feature script he penned with actor-cum-Berlin Cameron ACD, Griffin Creech.

So how in demand are you?
You have no idea.

You've been absent from the music video scene lately. Will that change this year?
I know the owner of Modular Records (in Australia) who's become a friend and I'm planning on doing a lot of work with them. I'm doing two videos in a row right now. It's exciting for me because I've been exhausted doing back-to-back commercials. It's a combination of no tracks coming in that I really wanted to do, and also, I have a new house that I'm moving into and there's no money in music videos, so it's basically like taking a month or two off.

Music videos are the pure, fun part because you do exactly what you want. Not to belittle advertising - obviously I do it and I love it and I enjoy it - but at the end of the day, an ad is an ad. The population is only going to give an ad a certain amount of credibility. They'll accept [a music video] as culturally important.

That Tanqueray web spot was more about entertainment. Do you want to do more long-form ads?
I'm genuinely curious to know how many people look at that stuff. I have absolutely no idea how many people actually watched that Tanqueray thing. I went on the website to see it and it played really badly on the site they hosted it on - I was like, "I wouldn't sit and wait for this." But I didn't care about any of that when I made it because I didn't over-think it. I just thought it would be fun to go to India and make a thing for Tanqueray.

Do you think commercials can contribute to culture like music videos or films?
I think very few people have the same passion for commercials as they do for music videos. But take the Skittles commercials, for instance - I'll go to a party with my friends and their kids will go berserk for those commercials. They'll come up to me and say, "Oh my God, you did the commercial with the singing rabbit?!" I think that section of the population absorbs stuff in a way that I don't think grown-ups do...Usually it's from the perspective of, 'Let's make fun of this ad and bond over the fact that it's a piece of shit'. I strive to do ads that surprise people because you're starting from a place where everyone is expecting it to be crap, and if you can have them watch from beginning to end, they'll be pleasantly surprised.

What do you think endeared people to the Skittles ads?
Just the ideas. And we did a really good job executing them. We cast the right people. For instance, in "Leak" the handyman and his little guy are both these Latin guys. For a couple of days we were torn between them and these other guys and by the end we were just like, "These guys would be funnier". We shot them, they delivered and now I couldn't imagine anyone else doing it.

How did you approach the characters in "Trade"?
I knew the guy who gives the rabbit away had to be confident, smart and a little sleazy. I knew the kid who got the rabbit had to be loveable and kind of pathetic - the guy who gets taken advantage of. For a commercial, I don't think much more about [the back story] than that. You have your radar up and you know how each character should be.

In "Beard" I liked it when the guy was acting a bit disinterested or cocky. If he knows he controls the situation, it's a funnier dynamic. The woman is supposed to be in control, but she's the weak one. If he's a really smart guy, he's going to take advantage of her weakness. She's vulnerable and wants to be loved so when the beard rubs her cheek it actually feels good - which is so fucked. I mean, we're talking about a candy commercial here. What the hell are we talking about?

INFORMATION
Production affiliations: Repped globally by MJZ and Suneeva in Canada.

On Richard Dean Anderson: "Put it this way, he's now on my iChat. Every six months I get a weird, cryptic message from him."

On Mr. T: "Honestly, he was the loveliest man I've ever met in my life."

On TV icons he hasn't worked with yet: "I'm moving into the '90s. I'm transitioning into The Golden Girls and Saved by the Bell. I hope to work with Screech. Dougie, maybe?

MJZ http://www.mjz.com
Tom Kuntz http://www.kuntzmanor.com